ReFo: MIA @ NO, Week 4

this is a discussion within the Saints Community Forum; New Orleans – Three Performances of Note
Nearly Flawless Brees Steals the Show
You could count the things Drew Brees did wrong in this game on one hand. He failed to get a play sorted pre-snap resulting in a delay ...

You could count the things Drew Brees did wrong in this game on one hand. He failed to get a play sorted pre-snap resulting in a delay of game, and he under-threw Darren Sproles on a swing pass early in the fourth — aside from that you’d be hard pressed to fault his performance. Of his nine incompletions in the game, two were dropped passes, two were thrown away, and one was batted by Paul Soliai midway through the first quarter. Perhaps not quite as flawless a performance as we saw from Peyton Manning last Monday, but really you’d be nitpicking to separate the two. However you slice it Brees was too good for the Dolphins. You’ve already seen his stats between the numbers, outside the numbers he was no slouch either, and you can draw the same result by looking at his intermediate throws as well (9 of 11, 142 yards, +3.7 grade). The sky is the limit for the Saints when Brees plays like this.

Pass Rushing Trio Make Their Mark

We’ve given Cameron Jordan plenty of credit for his start to the season and, after some struggles early on in run defense, he again came into his own as a pass rusher as the Saints established their lead. He Racked up six more pressures in this one to take his season total to 23 (4 Sk, 3 Ht, 16 Hu) after four games. Jordan wasn’t alone in getting to Tannehill in this game however, with Junior Galette (+2.5) continuing his strong start to the season with another four pressures. Galette took the Dolphins’ signal-caller down on three of those four pressures, including his sack which came off a sharp outside move having faked inside which turned Miami left tackle Jonathan Martin inside out. Perhaps the surprise package though was John Jenkins who provided a real presence as a pass rusher in the second half for such a big man, including getting a hit on Chris Carr’s deflected interception while lined up wide of the tackle and running Tyson Clabo right back to his quarterback. The Saints’ defense has been one of the surprise packages in the league this season, taking quickly to Rob Ryan’s scheme and providing an excellent foil to Sean Payton’s offense.

Triplets with a Difference

Marques Colston was 3 yards short of giving the Saints three receivers with 100 yard games in this encounter, as the Dolphins struggled to cover Brees’ favorite targets. All three of Colston, Darren Sproles and Jimmy Graham caught their passes against at least four different defenders, with the Dolphins choosing not to match up against any of them. Sproles got the ball rolling with his 48-yard gain on a crisp out and up on the second play of the game, and only added to his value as a receiver and a runner with consistently solid gains on punt returns. Working of the slot or wide on 34 of his 54 snaps, Graham got his gains in big lumps, with the biggest lump being the touchdown that established the Saints’ four score lead midway through the second quarter. Miami will be disappointed with how efficient they allowed New Orleans’ passing attack to be in this game, but when Brees and his receivers are in this kind of form it’s tough to stop them, especially when they put pedal to the metal as they did either side of half-time.